Happy Halloween

Erika decided before Halloween last year that it was going to be her last year trick-or-treating. I was fine with that, after all, it's such a pain trying to dodge costume-clad kids running around Pequot as I'm trying to keep track of what doorway Erika and her friends are trick-or-treating at while I'm their chauffeur.

While I was at work yesterday it made me a little sad thinking that Erika wouldn't be going trick-or-treating this year, that she had "aged" out of the tradition. But I was looking forward to being home for a change on Halloween and being able to pass out candy. Whenever Nels was home on Halloween, he would hide out in our computer room with all the lights off, usually eating some of the candy I bought for the trick-or-treaters while he was avoiding them. Yes, a regular Halloween Scrooge.

Our first trick-or-treater was our neighbor, Carissa, who was dressed as a giant candy corn. It didn't take much arm-twisting but she talked Erika, who was dressed as a "Drama Queen" witch, into going trick-or-treating with her and a friend. It was 27 degrees and off they went. They had a great time. I was worried about letting them go out alone, but she had my cell phone and they had perimeters on where they could go and how late they could stay out.

I only had about 5 or 6 kids stop by all night and I finally turned the front light off around 8:15 p.m. because it had been an hour since the last trick-or-treater stopped by. I think the cooler temps was a big deterrent this year. It was a little disappointing.

My coworkers are now enjoying the candy bowl leftovers, although they're typically groaning every time they reach in the bag for another Twix or sour gumball.

And I'm pretty happy that I still have a 13-year-old who hasn't yet grown out of celebrating Halloween.